Residents Clean Up Storm Damage

We've seen deadly weather across the Midwest and parts of the South in the last week. Last night, storms in our region had some worried they were facing the same catastrophe. Severe weather threatened homes and lives across parts of southern Bulloch and Effingham Counties. WTOC was on the scene today as folks got a daytime look at damage. It was random, so those who had it had plenty to remove. But after seeing this storm, they were glad they were there to do it.

May Smith of Brooklet can only look out her window in amazement at her sister's house and car. How could Sunday night's storm take out one and leave the other?

"All we heard was something rolling in and then it went to lightening and thundering and then went to hailing and then went to raining and then lightening struck the tree," she recalled.

Limbs and smaller trees and power lines were scattered around neighborhoods. Smith said to power was out till 1:30am. Crews spent the day sawing trees and turning them to mulch to clear the way.

"We worked about four hours last night and we've been working all day today since 7am this morning," Brooklet worker Danny Hendrix told us.

A few blocks away, the storm turned a barn at the old Jones Lumber Yard into scrap wood. Workers say the storm was sudden and intense.

But with recent deadly storms in Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Georgia, this mess doesn't seem so bad.

"It's just lucky we didn't get a house tore up and nobody lost life," said May Smith. "Thank the Lord for that."

As they pick up from this storm, folks just hope there are no more around the corner. According to the Effingham County Sheriff's Department, they had similar damage from the storm including a damaged mobile home in the Pineora area.

Emergency crews are responding to a fire at a Walterboro gas station Wednesday night. (Source: Wendy Bryant)

Emergency crews are responding to a fire at a Walterboro gas station Wednesday night. (Source: Wendy Bryant)

Emergency crews are responding to a fire at a Walterboro gas station Wednesday night. It's at the Murphy USA gas station on 2100 Bells Highway near the Walmart. Copyright 2018 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Emergency crews are responding to a fire at a Walterboro gas station Wednesday night. It's at the Murphy USA gas station on 2100 Bells Highway near the Walmart. Copyright 2018 WCSC. All rights reserved.